Article by
Barbados Today

Published on
April 3, 2015

The 30th CARIFTA Swimming Championships will commence this Saturday at the Aquatic Centre at 5:30 p.m. with over regional 365 swimmers spanning Bermuda in the north to French Guiana in the south.

This is the eighth occasion that the Aquatic Centre will be hosting the championships in its 25 years of operation. The Barbados team is ready for a keen and robust competition and is set to give an outstanding performance in front of its home crowd.

Leading the team will be captains Alex Sobers and Alexis Clarke. Sobers will be the sole 15-17 male, swimming at the top of his age group. The girls have a strong 15 to 17 age-group including Kimberley Willoughby who will swim her last CARIFTA competition, as well as Alexis Clarke, Hannah Gill and Sariya Sherry.

Barbados’ CARIFTA swimmers.

Among the 13 to 14 boys, Luis Sebastian-Weekes, Damon St. Prix, Jack Kirby, Kobi Talma and Jumar Waldrond will offer strong competition in that age group and should be visiting the podium. The girls too, Kendi Bynoe, Rebecca Lashley, Mckayla Treasure and Destiny Harding are expected to perform well.

The 11 to 12 age group boys and girls will have Nkosi Dunwoody and Danielle Titus, medallists in their respective teams at the CISC competition last year and should set the standard for McCallum Clarke and Ashley Weekes, and the two newcomers, Kayla Smith and Danielle Treasure.

Head coach Tony Petrolanda is expecting his team to give a good performance and to have fierce competition. The pool at the Aquatic Centre has been the training centre for seven Olympians since 1989 and it continues to prepare young Barbadians for that ultimate achievement. Competition at the Aquatic Centre will end on April 7 but open water competition will begin in Carlisle Bay on the 8th at 8 a.m. Alexis Clarke, Nicholas Hall, Kent Mullins, and Jonathan Manning will compete in the 15 to 17 age group and Kobi Talma and Gabrielle Dupigny will swim in the 13 to 14 age group over a distance of 5km.

For the first time the Barbados Amateur Swimming Association in conjunction with Six Gear Studios Inc. will offer live coverage of the competition by streaming on LIMEStyle – TV Channel 101 and via the internet world-wide from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Visit www.swimbarbados.com or www.lime.com www.lime.com.